Yes Another Cycling Qestion

[gangeox]

So if all stats are zero how long before the bacteria dies off? i mean if they zero at midnight you wont know till the morning at best so how long before it dies off, and how long will it take for fish to dump and pee enough ammonia to get the filter bacteria working again?

 

[smurfyy_2k3]

bacteria will die off over night and you will have to start from scratch building you colony back up

 

[Miss Wiggle]

if kept in water with no food source bacteria will start to die off after 12 hrs, however if there's fish in there there's always gonna be a relativley steady level of ammonia to keep it going.

if your stats dropped to 0 after fishless cycling and you werent able to add any fish within the next 12 hrs then there's a fair chance you'd have to cycle the whole thing again, if you added fish then they may have to go through an ammonia and nitrite spike.

if your near the end of your cycle and concerned about it, then when you check your levels in the morning and they're 0, and your not sure when you can get fish, just add a little pinch of fish food each day until you get your fish which should keep it ticking over.

 

[gangeox]

So a good way would just be to get mature media and put fish in straight away with the cycling as the bacteria is allready there?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

So a good way would just be to get mature media and put fish in straight away with the cycling as the bacteria is allready there?

yeah if you can get enough media from an established tank and put it in your filter you can add fish straight away, you should only stock lightly at first and build up though. and make sure the media is kept wet in water from the tank during transfer.

 

[gangeox]

So here are my stats if anyone would care to give their opinion

Yesterday at 2000hrs:

Ammonia 1.2

Nitrite .5

Tonight at 2000 hrs:

Ammonia 0

Nitrate 1.6

Nitrate 100+

Does this make any sense?

Do i still have to feed ammonia to keep the bacteria alive?

Thanks again in advance

Glen

 

[xoedusk]

Yes, keep the ammonia above 0 ppm by adding more. Do this until you add the fish.

 

[crazie.eddie]

Is that 100ppm for Nitrates? If so, it's EXTREMELY high for a tank that is cycling. Are you using fishles cycling or something or maybe the test kit is off?

 

[gangeox]

I am doing a fishless cycle, the stats from 1000 hrs this morning are

Ammonia 00

Nitrite 1.6

Nitrate 100 +

I'Ve read that the only way to reduce nitrate is to do a water change so i am doing that right now.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yup your not finished cycling until that nitrite reading has dropped to 0 as well, keep adding your ammonia.

it is a high nitrate reading but i wouldn't worry, it's most likely cos of the high amounts of ammonia in fishless cycling. when your finished cycling you should do a 90% water change anyway before adding new fish, and then your weekly maintenance should take care of it from there

 

[gangeox]

I did a 75% water change last night to reduce the Nitrates and thought i would post this mornings stats for your comments:

Ammonia 00

Nitrite .30 (Was 1.6)

Nitrate 30 (100+?)

Ph 7.5

and if i've been told correctly i now feed small amounts of food once / twice daily until my Nitrites are Zero?

However my next question is, there must be ammonia present in the tank for the bacteria to survive, so how will they survive if the ammonia level is zero? This cycling is driving me:

Thanks in advance.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

the ammonia is being produced by the fish food, but the filter bacteria colony is converting it to nitrite really quickly now. don't worry that you've got a 0 ammonia reading, looks like your nearly done now so just stick with it